Behind the Scenes
by Lexington's Hammer
Summary: [Chapter 3 Added]Justin starts to search out the pirates' fortress and discovers someone he didn't expect to find there. Please Read & Review.
1. Prologue

"_Begun the Clone War has"_- Jedi Master Yoda

Background: The Clone Wars have begun. Hundreds of Jedi and thousands of Clone Troopers now battle across the galaxy with the Separatist's Droid Army. While this happens in the foreground prominent members of the Senate are horrified that their children have been captured and two promising Jedi apprentices have also gone missing. Assigned to find both the children and the apprentices and guard them until they have safely been returned to Coruscant is Justin Tera, a Jedi Knight in his late forties. To help Justin in his journey and to transport the children once he's found that the Republic can only spare an old YT-100 freighter and a pair of decommissioned combat droids.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own the Star Wars theme that pleasure belongs to George Lucas; I only own Justin Tera and some of the other original characters and places Justin visits in his mission.

**Chapter 1:**

Stars flashed past the cockpit of the old YT-100 freighter named _Hope's Secret_. Sitting in the pilot seat of the creaky old ship was one of the Jedi, the protectors of the peace and defenders of the Republic.

He snorted in dry irony, _Some peace protectors we are, the whole galaxy is at war with itself and we didn't even know the Separatists were planning to attack until Master Kenobi and his Padawan were captured by the Genosians._

The veteran Jedi at the controls was named Justin Tera. He wore his black hair long, drawn back in a ponytail; however, his once solid black hair now had streaks of gray in it, telling of his age. He wore a closely trimmed full beard and mustache that covered his face, with more gray was running through it.

At nearly forty-seven years old and still with no Padawan Learner, Justin was a bit old to be without an apprentice of his own, but he had been a slow learner in the Jedi Academy and had fallen behind the other s who joined the Order at the same time as him.

But he still reached the rank of Jedi Knight, a life-long goal for him, and if remained a Jedi Knight until he joined the Force he would be satisfied.

Around him the old bucket of rust known as the _Hope's Secret_ groaned as she flew through hyperspace. A grim chuckle left Justin's mouth, _I may join the Force sooner than I may plan, why in the name of the Force did the Council even bother giving me this wreck? I would have been better of being thrown into space in a cargo container with a small leak in it, at least then I would know when and how I would die._

A rather sharp tremor ran through the ship as it dropped out of hyperspace. A single barren planet hung in space before the freighter. With a low moan coming from within the old freighter Justin powered up the _Hope's_ sublight engines, flying the bulky craft toward the surface of this forsaken planet, identified as Belance.

**NEWN-CAPE, BELANCE**

With a heavy thud Justin's ancient freighter landed near the only settlement on Belance, a plump elderly man with a long white beard, elaborate robes, and a wrinkled face walked out to the old ship.

Justin walked up to the ramp and waited for it to lower, but only a dull grinding noise greeted him and the ramp stayed up. Justin growled and stomped his foot on one corner of the ramp, the grinding sound continued, but the ramp finally descended to the dry dirt below.

Justin approached the elderly man as he waited patiently at the edge of the smooth dirt landing field, the man bowed deeply to Justin before speaking, "Greetings Master Jedi this is an unexpected honor, my name is Gerance, Mayor of Newn-Cape, what brings you to our humble settlement on Belance? We are not accustomed to having Jedi visit us, especially with this great civil war that you are fighting."

Justin returned the bowed slightly, "My name in Justin Tera, I have received information that a band of pirates and other criminals have taken up hiding somewhere on your world, they may have something that I am looking for, do you know of them?"

Gerance nodded, paling slightly, "Yes Master Justin, we at Newn-Cape know these beasts very well, they raid our outlying homes regularly, taking any food they find; they have threatened our very existence by cutting our food supplies so low that any new boom in our population would cause a famine throughout the settlement."

Justin nodded reluctantly, "Well, if you know of them do you know where they are based?"

Gerance froze, "You mean to drive them from here? Oh no Master Jedi I couldn't ask you to do that, we of Newn-Cape can handle themselves, besides there are too many for one man, even a Jedi, to defeat."

Justin shook his head, "Don't worry Mayor Gerance, just show me where these men are hiding and I promise you they will never bother you again."

Gerance visibly debated within himself what to do, he wanted to be rid of the pirates, but he was obviously afraid of the consequences of he sent Justin to them and the Jedi Knight was killed or captured.

Justin did not want to use the Force to pull to knowledge from Gerance's mind, he had never liked doing that, it felt like a misuse of the Force for personal gain he preferred to use old fashioned talking to get his information.

Finally Gerance nodded, if with a bit of reluctance, "Follow me Master Jedi, I will take you to my home and will see about getting you directions the pirates' fortress."

Justin nodded, "I appreciate your help Mayor Gerance."

The two men walked into Newn-Cape, toward the large stone building near the middle, the Mayor's home, the same home that every Mayor had lived in since the founding of Newn-Cape, according to Gerance anyways. To Justin it looked a little too new and clean compared to the rest of the town to be part of the original town, but maybe they took better care of their Mayor's house than others, so Justin remained quite about it.

When they entered the building Justin was greeted by several sparsely dressed serving girls, wearing nothing but little scraps of clothing to cover their most private areas, everything else was exposed.

Gerance shooed them away, apologizing to Justin, "Our customs are very different from that of the rest of the Republic; they require all guests into the Mayor's home to be…" he brooded for the right word, "…_pleasured _before going on to business, so as to give them a favorable opinion of the ruling house."

Justin merely shook his head, "I'm not here to judge your people, but I must ask, those women are not slaves correct?"

Gerance looked stricken, "No of course not Master Jedi, we follow all of the Republic's laws, those women are employed by me and their jobs are among the most highly respected it Newn-Cape."

Justin gave a shudder after Gerance turned to lead them into his office, _I will have to talk to Master Windu when this mission is over, I am curious to know how these people were able to establish a settlement here legally_.

Gerance shuffled through his papers on his desk and turned to face Justin, a thin leaflet of papers in his hands, "These contain all of our information on the pirates' fortress."

Justin took the papers and looked through them; they contained several maps with a few different routes to the fortress, which was in the Bronze Desert, a rough sketch of the fortress' visible defenses, and some information concerning what they guessed the fortress had previously been, before the pirates made it their fortress.

Justin nodded gratefully to Gerance, "Thank you Mayor Gerance, this will help immensely, I will leave for the fortress tomorrow."

Gerance nodded and spread his hands before him, "Your welcome Master Tera, but if I may ask, how will you get to the fortress? It is too far to walk and any ship that gets too close will be destroyed by the pirate's air defenses; we found that out the hard way, one of our few airspeeders flew too close to the fortress and got blasted out of the sky, we didn't even know what happened until the pirates dropped the wreckage in their next raid."

Justin nodded again, "Thank you for the warning Mayor Gerance, but I will manage just fine, and I am well prepared to reach the fortress."

Gerance nodded, "Of course, I should have known a Jedi would have brought all the supplies he would need to combat the forces of darkness, wherever he found them."

Justin smiled slightly, "Yes, well, if you'll excuse me Mayor Gerance, I must return to my ship and make plans for tomorrow."

Gerance nodded and bowed again, "Of course Master Tera, I wish you good luck in you mission."

With that farewell and Gerance's papers under his arm Justin left the Mayor's home and returned to the_ Hope's Secret_ for the night.

However, as Justin ascended the ancient freighter, he failed to notice several pairs of red eyes glowing as they watched him board the ship in the dark of Belance's night.

FOLLOWING MORNING, NEWN-CAPE, BELANCE 

Belance's orange sun rose over Newn-Cape, casting long shadows over the _Hope's Secret_ as her captain readied his speeder, one equally as old as the freighter, for its long journey to rescue his charges.

In the morning light Justin loaded food, water, and other various supplies he would need to reach the pirates' fortress. With the last box loaded and everything strapped down for the journey Justin walked up the _Hope's_ ramp and entered the small maintenance room adjacent to his quarters.

Standing on the back of the room and held upright by old dusty restraints were the two battered combat droids the Republic had _graced_ him with to use on this mission. Both droids were ancient, rusting hulks that wouldn't last ten seconds even as bodyguards in the most peaceful place, yet they were all the help he had for now.

He walked over to the first and typed in the start up sequence, with a low hum and a slow sparking sound the droid's photo receptors came to life, glowing a faint blue, "Com…Combat droid BG-105 online and awaiting orders."

With every word the BG-105 spoke its voice recorder popped and cracked as the old unit worked itself to readiness.

Justin sighed, "Stand by 105." Then he reached over and powered up the other combat droid.

This combat droid looked at Justin with pale yellow eyes, its chassis pitted and scarred from age, "Co…mbat droid…BG-215…onli…" Then with a pop and a puff of smoke the top of the droids head bounced opened and the droid itself went dead.

Justin snarled impatiently as he fiddled with the droid's circuitry until the other combat droid suddenly came back to life, "Combat droid BG-215 online and awaiting orders."

Justin stepped back and faced both of the droids, "BG-105 and BG-215 I am leaving the ship, I am ordering you two to protect the ship until I return."

Both ancient droids' processors hummed as they processed their orders then spoke with static filled voices, "Orders acknowledged, the _Hope's Secret_ will be defended until the captain returns."

Justin nodded and walked out of the room, already unsure if these two droids would survive being active, let alone protect the freighter from anyone who would cause problems.

Just to be sure he returned to the cockpit where an astromech droid, the only up-to-date technology he had, was plugged into serve as the _Hope's_ navigational computer.

The red and white colored droid chirped cheerfully when Justin walked in, "R2-C1 I have an assignment for you, I want you to supervise the BG Combat Droids and keep them in good shape; plus you are to screen anyone who approaches the ship, using the BGs and the ship's defenses when necessary, with discretion of course."

R2-C1 beeped and warbled an affirmative and smoothly unplugged from the freighter's navigation computer and rolled off to the maintenance room to service the two aging combat droids.

Suitably satisfied that the ship would be here when he came back Justin descended the ramp and closed it with a call beacon programmed to control the ramp only.

As the ramp clanked into place Justin climbed into the speeder, an aging class that had long ended its production, the wear of time had smudged any paint scheme that once covered the speeder, leaving only a dull gray tone of the scarred metal body.

With a cloud of black smoke the speeder's old engine came to life, shaking the poor craft and its driver roughly until it settled in its stand-by mode.

Justin paused a second to make a final check of the speeder before accelerating out of Newn-Cape and off to the north, the direction of the fortress.

THE BRONZE DESERT, BELANCE 

The wind blew passed Justin's face, whipping his gray streaked ponytail behind him, while his eyes tried to blink back the dust filling the air. _At least those lazy Republic technicians could have installed a windscreen, I know supplies have been tight ever since the start of the Clone Wars, but I don't think one windscreen will break the Republic's war efforts._

Justin snarled as a clod of dirt hit him in the face, giving his head a shake Justin slowed to a halt at the top of a low hill overlooking the desert before him.

Off in the distance, rising out from a low ridge of jagged mountains was a brown stone structure.

Digging into his pack Justin pulled out a pair of micro-binoculars and looked at the structure.

Tall brown stone made up the walls that surrounded the main structure, their surface pitted from years of wear and exposure to the harsh elements. Behind the walls a rough black structure filled the interior space, with several tall slender towers rising from its roof. On the tops of these towers sat the anti-air defenses that Mayor Gerance had told him about.

The rest of the fortress was worn away by time, its edges rounded or completely cracked and broken off. Justin thought he saw guards along the wall, but at the distance he couldn't be sure.

Putting the micro-binoculars away Justin looked around the surrounding desert until he found a small group of mountains where he could make camp until he was ready to infiltrate the fortress.

Backing the speeder down the hill to avoid alerting the fortress guards, Justin slowly drove to the mountains, which actually turned out to be the ruins of a large tower that used to be one of the outposts for the original owners of the fortress, according to the history that Gerance had given him.

He unloaded only what he needed for the night, so he could leave quickly if he needed to. Once he had his camp ready he explored the rest of the ruins and also checked on the fortress from his new position, which was closer to the fortress than before.

From his new vantage point he could make out a tall gate made of some type of ore and several anti-personal laser cannons mounted on the wall and in small bunkers built into the ground surrounding the gate.

Placing the micro-binoculars in their pouch on his belt Justin ran a hand through his beard, thinking about how he would get into such a place. He sat there, gazing at the distance structure, until the sun was low in the sky, casting its brilliant orange colors over the desert as the darkness of night fell.

NEWN-CAPE, BELANCE 

Mayor Gerance pulled his fancy shirt over his plump form, a thin layer of sweat covering his face. Behind him his favorite girl, Melin, rose from his bed to dress now that her services were completed.

Gerance smiled greasily as his eyes caressed her beautiful body, "You need not dress Melin, and once I take care of some urgent business I will return to enjoy your services again."

Melin bowed deeply to him, her body covered in a thin layer of sweat as Gerance eyed her hungrily, "As my Master the Mayor commands."

Gerance smiled again as she climbed into his bed again, obediently awaiting his return.

Shuffling his rather large bulk out of the bedroom he made his way to his office. He hadn't lied to that Jedi Knight when he had said his girls were not slaves, they we employed by him from birth, raised to serve him and his guests; they would do anything and were much more willing lovers than any slave.

Chuckling to himself he stepped into his office and sat down behind his large expensive wood desk while another of his girls served him a drink and a rich, sweet snack.

Absently waving the girl away Gerance activated his holoprojector and typed in a special command to scramble his transmission before typing in a new frequency.

The head and shoulders of a male Twi'lek, any color or distinguishing features blurred by the old holoprojector, "I am sorry for disturbing you Jern Tolba, but I thought you would like to know; a Jedi Knight is here on Belance asking about the pirates."

Jern Tolba's blurry image shook with laughter, "A Jedi Knight? One Jedi Knight has been sent to deal with my men and me? Has this Jedi already left for the fortress?"

Gerance nodded, his second chin bobbing, "Yes he has, he left this morning in an old beat up speeder. He probably has reached the perimeter of your fortress by now."

Jern nodded, "Thank you Mayor, you are proving your worth to me and reaffirming the wisdom of placing you in charge of Newn-Cape after the previous Mayor's unfortunate accident."

Gerance bowed his head, "I am glad that you are pleased Jern, if you wish I can impound the Jedi's ship and search it for anything of value."

Jern shook his head, his fleshy lekku shaking slightly, "No Gerance, leave the Jedi's ship alone, there may be someone onboard that could warn him, blowing your cover and my element of surprise.

Gerance bowed his head again, "Of course, I will wait for you to give me my new orders before I take any actions."

Jern's holographic head nodded, "Very good Gerance, you continue to serve me well, Jern Tolba out." The holoprojector went dead, leaving Gerance to snarl at his boss.

Before Jern had so graciously given the title of Mayor of Newn-Cape he had been on track to dispose of that fool Twi'lek and become the leader of the pirate gang based in the Bronze Desert fortress. But now he was stuck keeping the population of this pitiful settlement content so they didn't ask the Republic for help with the pirates.

Gerance rose and left his office and headed for his bedroom. He opened the door and smiled as he saw Melin move toward him obediently. Still this job did have its benefits.

_Author's Note: Well I hope everyone likes the rest of this chapter I'll start working on the next chapter soon. So anyway please give me you thoughts on this chapter, any and all are welcome._


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own the Star Wars theme that pleasure belongs to George Lucas; I only own Justin Tera and some of the other original characters and places Justin visits in his mission.

**Chapter 2:**

As the first rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon, casting their orange glow on the crumbling tower of an ancient outpost, Justin Tera sat on a small ledge in the surviving base of the old outpost that he had climbed up to the night before. Justin felt the sun's warmth as he slowly awoke from the light Jedi trance that he had been in; he used this trance often when he was staking out a location as it allowed him to remain alert to his surroundings while still getting enough rest to compensate for the fact that he was not sleeping completely.

As the veteran Jedi Knight roused from the trance he pulled out his micro-binoculars and scanned the pirate fortress across the flat surface of the Bronze Desert again. He search revealed that nothing had changed that he could visibly see from where he was, still Justin settled in for to watch the activity around the fortress for the day, to be sure he was familiar with the sounds and sights of the area before he tried to sneak in later tonight.

While he watched the fortress Justin tried to reach find the Force presences of the two Jedi apprentices that he was looking for, he knew that they would be kept in an even more secure area than the Senators' children that had been captured as well; especially the older of the two, Nalden, who had an amazing control of the Force and was one of the most promising students in art of lightsaber combat to enter the Academy in many years.

However, if either apprentice were in the fortress Justin couldn't detect them, which was most likely due to the fact that they were so far away from where Justin was and that Justin had never been that successful at detecting the passive Force presences of others unless they were actively using the Force at that time which the pirates would have obviously not allowed if they had any sense.

With the progression of the day the Belance's sun slowly crawled across the sky, its harsh rays spreading heat that gave the sands of the surrounding desert a shimmering, copper effect that must have given the Bronze Desert its name.

Eventually Justin climbed down from the ledge he'd been sitting on to retrieve a jug of water and some food. He slug the water over his shoulder and stuffed a few ration bars in his belt after opening another and placing it in his mouth, thus suitably ready to face the rest of a day watching under a desert sun Justin climbed back up to ledge where he'd been before and got settled for the rest of the day.

In between scanning the pirate fortress and keeping his body fueled Justin also fiddled with the only possession he had that made as a Jedi that had not been mediocre, his lightsaber.

The lightsaber was the same one he had built as a Padawan so many years ago and because it had worked on his first try many of his teachers had believed him to be destined to be a great Jedi at the time. They had turned out to be wrong so far, but his lightsaber was still one of the most beautiful ever to be built by a Padawan; some of the most revered Jedi Masters still could not construct a lightsaber that equaled Justin's in craftsmanship and uniqueness of design.

In fact if Justin hadn't been so adamant about helping in the Clone Wars and going off on adventures, he could be back in the Jedi Temple, teaching apprentices and Masters alike how to construct their lightsabers using some of the fantastic design ideas that he had used in his own lightsaber.

Justin glanced down at his lightsaber as he unclipped it from his worn belt; the cylinder hilt of the lightsaber was slightly distorted with a grip to allow it to fit comfortably in his hand, while the grip itself was layer with a rubber synthetic to keep his grip firm in combat. Along the end of the hilt to the lens cap at the end of the lightsaber the rest of the lightsaber was polished silver with gold inlaid along the edges and around the edge of the grip. The activator was set an inch above where his thumb would normally rest and would only deactivate if he pushed the rounded black button three times in rapid succession. Set at a diagonal angle from the activator rested a red dial that would alter the positioning of the crystals inside his lightsaber, allowing Justin to adjust the properties of his blade with a flick of his thumb.

After you looked past the beautifully crafted hilt you could see that the inner workings of the lightsaber were just as innovative and radical as the non-traditional exterior designs that Justin had used. Inside his lightsaber Justin had taken the traditional design for the dual-phase lightsaber and adjusted it to an entirely new level, to the point where it was more of a tri-phase lightsaber. Justin had set three focusing crystals in a triangle in the center of his lightsaber and by moving the red altering dial Justin could change his lightsaber from three different types of blades. The first blade setting was the standard one meter blade that most Jedi employed, this was the setting that Justin normally had his lightsaber set to and after some modifications his lightsaber would automatically go back to this setting when he deactivated it; when he activated his lightsaber at this setting it would give his lightsaber a silver color. The second setting for his blade increased the length to one and a half meters changing the blade to a deep blue color, giving Justin an excellent blade with which he could block blaster fire and cover others who were with him in combat. Finally the third blade was a orange-red color that was the normal meter in length only it power output was twice that of a normal lightsaber and would release a discharge of energy as a result of any contact making the blade excellent for fighting in hand-to-hand combat, especially against other lightsaber opponents; the only drawback was that the blade drained the lightsaber's batteries much faster than the other two settings, which meant that Justin had to save the use of this blade setting to tip the scales in a fight in his favor at the last moment.

Justin looked at his lightsaber and smiled as he remembered the first time he'd activated it when he had finally finished constructing it, long after his fellow apprentices had tried one or two of their own lightsaber designs and failed. Since that first time that he had seen his lightsaber's silver blade humming before his face he'd seen dozens of planets as he'd mediated disputes and investigated crimes across the galaxy, bringing the light of truth and justice to every dark corner of the Republic.

Now he was ready to bring the same light to the pirates and kidnapped children in the fortress he was watching now.

Justin's eyes caught some motion near the gate in the fortress' wall and hurriedly clipped his lightsaber to his belt while bring his micro-binoculars to his eyes.

The heavy black ore gates in the fortress swung open to permit the entrance of a group of swoop bikes that were approaching from the direction of Newn-Cape to the south. As the swoops approached Justin saw the anti-personal turrets rotate slowly to follow them until they had passed through the gates, then the turrets covered the flat desert sands around the gate as the pitted and scarred doors had closed again.

Justin leaned back against the cracked wall behind him and scratched one side of his face as he thought to himself, _That must have been a raiding party._ Justin pulled his comlink from his belt and dialed the frequency that would let him communicate directly with R2-C1, "R2-C1 what is your status?"

Blocky text scrolled across the comlink's screen as the astromech droid answered, "Status optimal Jedi Tera, several young humanoids have come trying to look at the ship, but a warning was all that was required to drive them away."

Justin frowned, "Has there been any attack on Newn-Cape within the time I left to now?"

R2-C1's answer was quick, "Negative."

Justin's eyebrows drew down as he concentrated, "R2-C1 have you been using the _Secret's_ sensors to monitor any traffic in Newn-Cape?"

The astromech droid responded quickly, "Not currently Jedi Tera, however, I have them set to record their data for future review, please stand by while I check past records…" After several moments of silence a faint ping emitted from the comlink before more text appeared, "Jedi Tera after searching the ship's records I have found that a group of nine contacts similar in profile to one passenger speeder bikes approached the edge of Newn-Cape and were met by a private speeder that came from Mayor Gerance's estate. The speeder bikes and the Mayor's speeder remained in close proximity for approximately 27.14 minutes before the speeder bikes departed heading north until they left sensor range and Mayor Gerance's speeder returned to the Mayor's estate. Is that sufficient Jedi Tera?"

Justin's frown didn't lift as he replied, "Yes, thank you R2-C1, please send the sensor maps and data that covers that time period to my personal datapad."

More text scrolled over the screen, "Understood Jedi Tera, may the Force be with you in your search."

Justin deactivated his comlink and set his datapad to receive the information from R2-C1 as he pondered what everything meant.

_Why would someone from Mayor Gerance's house meet with members of the pirates that are raiding them? Could it be some type of bribe to keep them from returning?_ Justin frowned as the data was received by his datapad and he was able to see how the speeder and the swoop bikes had positioned themselves during the meeting. _Now that's interesting_, Justin zoomed his datapad's screen in on the speeder and the swoop bikes as they came into contact with each other.

Justin had been present before when two opposing groups meet to try and discuss their problems or simply negotiate treaties and the way the swoops and speeders acted was not in that manner. The speeder entered into the middle of the swoop formation and the other swoop bikes spread out to watch them as the rider of the speeder spoke to the leader of swoops. The whole meeting reminded Justin of when he'd seen undercover operatives meet with their contacts to pass on information or receive new orders. It would make sense that someone in Newn-Cape's leadership would be on the pirates' payroll, after all people were naturally drawn to power and the promise of money if they supported that power. However, it also meant that this pirate group was not your average type of pirate group, whoever was leading them was planning on staying for the long term and was planning to keep the populace here from alerting the Republic to their presence.

Justin closed down his datapad and checked the fortress again as he started to formulate a plan in his mind.

**NIGHTFALL, BRONZE DESERT, BELANCE**

Justin looked up at the star filled sky above his head as he folded the loose brown robe and placed it in a compartment in his speeder, as he closed the compartment and backed away from where he had hidden the speeder in a hole under part of the collapsed outpost tower; then he looked over at the to the outpost that he would be trying to enter into tonight.

Justin had traded in his Jedi robes for a light brown jumpsuit that was issued by the Jedi Council for Jedi on insertion missions; the jumpsuit had a delicate weave in it that helped to absorb and dissipate blaster fire that hit it, while it wouldn't slow his movements at all. With his new outfit the only thing he wore that identified his as a Jedi was his lightsaber that was hanging from his left side. Aside from his lightsaber Justin had decided to bring a modified blaster pistol with a laser sight that was only visible when he wore the night vision visor that went with the jumpsuit and was modified silenced at the expense of some range and stopping power.

After checking that all his equipment was ready and that his speeder was hidden safely until he returned Justin drew lightly on the Force to speed his movements and keep his movements light as he started the slow process of making his way to the gate in the fortresses wall.

The crisp desert night air nipped at Justin's face and hands while a slow breeze rolled along the surface of the desert sands, kicking up just enough dust to hide the veteran Jedi's movements. Justin chuckled silently as the walls grew closer, _Well this is nice Justin, you're about to sneak inside a pirate compound looking for a group of kids, all while a pack ruthless killers and thieves wander the halls._ Justin cracked a faint smile, _At least the elements seem to be helping me in some way._

As Justin drew closer to the bunkers that lined the pathway leading up to the gate Justin lowered his body to the ground and slowly started crawling toward the closet bunker.

When Justin had been watching the gate earlier he had noticed that the anti-personnel cannons in the bunkers were being manned by more guards, most likely to keep a computer failure from leaving the fortress defenseless, but the guards had never exited the bunkers to return to the fortress ever during the day. This meant that either the guards lived in the bunkers or that the bunkers were connected to the fortress by some underground tunnel and since he could see no external doorway for the guards to exit by he decided to trust his judgment in the latter opinion. For that reason Justin had decided to enter the fortress through one of those bunkers, which were likely to have lighter security due to the traffic coming through them every day.

This still left the problem of being able to enter the reinforced bunkers without alerting the rest of the fortress that he had done so. Justin had decided that the only way to accomplish this was to use a stun grenade to knock out the guards and the use his lightsaber to make an entrance for himself, which he could also use to escape from the fortress when he had found the children, and secure the guards before entering the fortress itself.

Finally Justin reached the bunker's reinforced left wall, and then he noticed something he hadn't noticed before; the firing slit for the bunker had a retractable shield that had been lowered; keeping him from tossing the stun grenade into the bunker.

Justin sighed and pressed his back against the wall as he thought of ways to get around this, he discarded trying to cut into the bunker and take them by surprise, it was far to likely to draw more attention than he wanted.

As he saw it he had two remaining opinions, he could go back and try to find another way into the fortress or he could try and get the guards to open the shield so he could toss his stun grenade into the bunker without giving himself away.

Justin's lips curved in a slight smile as he remembered Master Yoda's favorite saying, "Do or do not, there is no try." _In that case I _will_ find away to get this shield open and I _will not _abandon those children._ Without another though Justin reached out a touched the minds of the two guards inside the bunker, luckily it appeared that both were human which would make influencing their minds easier, one guard was asleep and the other was watching the sensor system for the bunker.

Justin sighed as he reached into the awake guards mind and planted the idea that he saw an unknown speeder approaching on the sensor, he felt the suggestion take hold and the guard, who was bored and looking for some excitement readily believed it.

Justin pulled the stun grenade and primed it while the guard readied his antipersonnel blaster turret and flip the switch to open the shield. With a slight groan the metal visor retracted and the guard traversed the blaster to the left where he thought he had seen the speeder, he was struggling to make it out through the flying sand when he heard a piece of metal hit the floor behind him.

The guard turned, maybe thinking that his partner had waken, when the stun grenade detonated, sending a shockwave that filled the entire bunker and knocking both guards unconscious and all without waking the sleeping guard.

Justin waited a few minutes to be sure that no one had heard the sound and was coming to investigate; when no one came he pulled his lightsaber free, switched the setting to the narrow dark blue beam, and made four quick cuts to give him a door into the bunker while the thin lightsaber blade made the cuts less noticeable. Using a slight nudge from the Force Justin pulled the concrete slab he'd cut outward so that it fell into the swirling sand that surrounded the bunker.

Justin deactivated his lightsaber, opened himself up the Force to detect any attack that could be coming, and jumped through the hole into the bunker. When he landed he quickly scanned the room before he made a few preparations before moving further into the fortress.

First he tied and gagged the two guards and placed them both in a large weapons locker, which he locked and scrambled the lock combination. Then he closed the bunker's shield to keep anyone from noticing anything out of the ordinary, then he turned to face the hole he'd cut, slowly sand from the desert was sliding in as the blowing wind swirled around the bunker. Taking a deep breath Justin focused on the concrete block and slowly lifted it off the sand and started to turn it to place it back in the hole.

Sweat appeared on Justin's forehead as he began to struggle to keep the heavy block upright, but by more stubborn will than anything he kept it upright and finally the block slid back into place, with the thin cuts barely noticeable in the bunker's dim lighting. Justin sagged slightly as he let the block rest and he used a quick Jedi relaxation technique, and then thought about anything else he needed to do before he moved into the fortress.

Finally Justin turned to the antipersonnel blaster, which was mounted on a simple tripod, to face down the tunnel that led to the rest of the fortress; after being sure that it was secure Justin locked the blaster's safety on and powered it down before heading into the fortress.

Slowly Justin moved forward into the tunnel, his eyes darting to see if there was any security system to protect it, but after a while it appeared that there was none and shortly after Justin emerged in what looked like the basement of the fortress.

Justin crouched in the shadows near the tunnel entrance and looked over the area while he felt for any sign of the missing children and Jedi apprentices through the Force. Justin wasn't really surprised when he didn't feel anything from the children, but he was expecting something from at least one of the apprentices.

_What could be keeping me from feeling them through the Force?_ Justin tapped his chin, then a thought occurred to him, _If I was the leader of a group of pirates who had abducted two Jedi apprentices I would make sure that I fitted them with a neural restraint to keep them under control and keep them from touching the Force._ This worried Justin even more if this was true because only people who knew a lot about how the Jedi would know how to successfully restrain one and keep them immobilized against their will.

Justin shook his head as he made his way across the room to another door, _The more I look into this thing the more it seems this is more than just a regular kidnap and ransom situation. Either someone wants these specific kids or they wanted the Jedi Council's attention._ Justin smiled slightly as he reached the door, _Well if it's the attention of the Jedi they wanted, they got it._

_Author's Note: Well there's Chapter 2, I hope everyone likes it. I am trying to write something slightly different with this story with the Jedi character not being an all powerful person, but just someone who knows what they're doing and has a lot of experience. The next chapter should be a good one, with the introduction of some new characters, so stay tuned and of course if you can please review I would appreciate any feedback you could give me. Thanks!_


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own the Star Wars theme that pleasure belongs to George Lucas; I only own Justin Tera, Vale Keldan, and some of the other original characters and places Justin visits in his mission.

**Chapter 3:**

Vale Keldan took a deep breath through the air filters of his helmet and rolled his shoulders under his breastplate of Infiltrator armor he wore. A skilled bounty hunter and a veteran of over ten years of military service with the Republic Senate's Security Force, Vale had been wandering the galaxy working for the highest bidder since he left the RSSF over a decade ago.

Encased from head to toe in matte gray armor and wielding two Corellian DH-22 Long Barreled blaster pistols in holsters on his hips and a Bounty Hunter Guild EE-3 blaster carbine hanging on a strap from his back, Vale made an imposing figure made even the more hostile by the fact that his face was hidden by a cruel helmet that resembled that of a bird-of-prey with a blood red visor that let him see through infrared vision, night vision, and limited x-ray vision. Add to all that the handful of gadgets that were installed into his wrist guards and a pack on his back full of other tools he used in his trade and Vale was ready to face anything that the galaxy threw his way.

Ever since he had been hired to work for the Pirate Leader Jern Tolba Vale had been the object of suspicion by many of the other pirates as he was not well known by many of them and his past was shrouded in mystery. Still those with suspicions were sure to keep their doubts quiet as none of them could match Vale's fighting skills, especially with his deadly pair of DH-22s.

Today Vale had been tasked to guard the low-security dungeon of the pirate fortress located in the basement of the ancient structure, where troublesome people from the nearby Newn-Cape and others who had annoyed the pirates were kept. It was also a job that was given to those who had yet to completely earn the trust of Jern Tolba; since the prisoners were in effect disposable the entire dungeon could be gassed if someone managed to stage a jailbreak.

Today had been like any other day with hours of mindless boredom that was only interrupted by the arrival of the prisoners' morning meal, but still something was telling the veteran bounty hunter that something was happening that would be anything but boring.

Vale glance down the short corridor that served as the only entrance to the dungeon at the pair of guards who were leaning against the wall watching the rest of the basement while they chatted casually. The security for this dungeon was pitiful with no security doors aside from the ones that kept the prisoners in their cells, but those doors were keyed to a single computer terminal that only needed a key card to unlock it; that key card was in a storage locker along the wall and that only had a lock because it housed the belongings of the guards who worked in the dungeon itself. To a ten year veteran of the Republic's Senate Security Force such poor security in a dungeon made Vale cringe.

Outside the front office where Vale was standing he heard the conversation of the other guards stop and one of them stepped away from his post while the other called into the office, "Hey Vale, there's something moving out here."

Vale sighed and walked out into the basement, his hands resting lightly on the grips of his blaster pistols, when he heard the guard that had moved to investigate the sound a shout then fall silent.

Vale's pistols were in his hands and aimed without any conscious though as he scanned the basement, beside him the other guard had his blaster carbine out and was quickly fanning it back and forth quickly, ruining any chance of a decent shot he might have had if a target had presented itself.

Vale rolled his eyes behind his helmet, _Rookies_. He reached out with his tongue and flipped the switch that controlled the setting that his visor was on and set it to infrared vision to try and find the intruder. Immediately he found the fallen form of the other guard lying on the floor about fifteen meters from him, he was still alive based on the heat signature he was giving off, so that meant the intruder most likely wasn't a wild beast but some form of intelligence trying to infiltrate the pirate fortress undetected.

Vale scanned his gaze over the rest of the basement looking for the heat signature of the intruder, but after two complete looks he didn't see anything. Frustrated Vale glanced at the remaining guard, "You move inside the front office and set up a barricade, I'm going to find the basement lighting system and turn on the lights."

The guard nodded and hurried inside the office, eager to no longer be the target of the intruder.

With the guard out of the way Vale made his way along the wall to where the circuit breaker that controlled the lights for the basement; Jern Tolba was notoriously thrifty and he kept the main lights in the basement off to save energy that could be used elsewhere.

Vale reach the breaker and slid one blaster into its holster as he pried the panel open to activate the lights when he heard the other guard's blaster fire and then a thud as something hit the floor.

The veteran bounty hunter crouched as he pulled his other pistol out again and slowly made his way back to dungeon's entrance, always keeping his pistols trained on the doorway as he moved forward.

Shadows moved inside the forward office and Vale heard something that sounded like a body being dragged across the floor. Quietly the veteran bounty hunter pressed himself close to the wall beside the doorway and took a few short breaths to ready himself and then turned, pivoting on his right foot, to bring his pistol to bare on the intruder inside the office.

Justin was surprised to find how large the pirate fortress's basement was, with the darkened crate-filled room seemingly going on forever. Finally Justin had found a lighted doorway on a far wall with a pair of guards standing on either side watching the darkened basement.

Justin stealthily made his way to a stack of crates that brought him close enough that he could give the guards and the doorway a good look.

Both guards had the rough, unkempt appearance of pirates with their equally abused blaster carbines resting in their hands with the comfort of those who used them often. Justin reached out with his Force senses to look for any other guards or hidden traps and he found one more presence inside the doorway, but what was even more interesting was that he felt numerous life presences beyond that front room. _A prison complex_, thought Justin as he started thinking of how to infiltrate the complex without setting off any alarms the pirates had set up inside the prison.

Quickly Justin made a plan after taking a quick look over his surroundings and pushed an empty barrel to his left that made a grating sound on the floor as it moved. As soon as he had moved the barrel Justin hurried to his right to take cover behind another stack of crates.

The sound grabbed the guards' attention and they started moving at once, with one starting into the crates where Justin was hiding and the other yelling into the front room, bringing the third guard, a brute clad in full-body armor, out into the basement.

Justin growled silently as he moved to intercept the investigating guard, the Jedi Knight slipping his silenced blaster from its holster and setting it to stun as he drew closer. In one smooth motion Justin grabbed the guard from behind and fired a single blue stun bolt into his back, but even with the speed that Justin moved the guard still yelped in surprise before he went unconscious.

Without even thinking Justin let him fall to the ground and fell down behind the unconscious figure, hoping that he could gain the element of surprise on his foes if they came for their fallen comrade.

Several minutes pasted and it appeared that, unfortunately the remaining guards were more concerned with flushing Justin out than helping their comrade as the armored figure crept off into the darkness of the basement with the movements of a trained fighter and the other moved back inside the prison's front office.

_No honor among thieves_, thought Justin disdainfully as he weighed following the armored figure or moving for the front office. After a few moments of waiting to see if the armored figure was trying to flush him out, which it didn't seem that he was after all, Justin moved forward to the doorway quickly and silently and jumped inside the front office.

The guard yelled in surprise and fired early, missing Justin by a wide margin. Justin return shot was much more accurate, his blue stun bolt hitting the guard full in the chest and dumping him onto the floor. Justin returned his blaster to its holster and quickly pulled the unconscious guard off to the side and secured him with a pair of stun cuffs that had fallen to the floor when he had flipped a table to try and barricade the doorway.

With that done he walked over to a simple computer terminal that seemed to control that locks for the prison complex, once Justin had found the security key card in the adjacent locker that the guards hadn't locked, and started scanning through to see if he could find any of the missing children when he felt a sudden tingling sensation at the base of his spine.

Without thinking Justin grabbed his lightsaber and spun, activating the silver blade with a _snap-hiss_ as he blocked the blaster bolt that would have hit him square in the back.

The armored figure that had fired the bolt paused when he saw the humming lightsaber blade in his target's hand and suddenly the figure holstered his weapons and stepped into the office with his hands held out in front of him.

Justin eyed the armored guard cautiously, noticing that his gauntlets appeared to be heavily modified and probably held a number of hidden tricks, while he kept his lightsaber ready in front of him.

The armored figure must have noticed Justin's wariness, "You can relax Master Jedi, I'm not here to fight you, and in fact I think we might be here for the same reason."

Justin raised one eyebrow questioningly, "Really? I very much doubt that I have come here to work for the pirates who inhabit this fortress as you are."

The figure shook his head as he raised his hands and began pressed a series of clips on his helmet, a hiss of pressurized air proceeded the helmet as the figure pulled his helmet off his head revealing an aged face with scars and lines showing many years of hard living with close cropped dark blonde hair that was just beginning to lighten with bits of gray, "My name is Vale Keldan, I'm a bounty hunter in the service of Senator Ronet Corr of the planet Iseno, I was tasked in finding Senator Corr's youngest son, Teno Corr, who was abducted by Jern Tolba's pirate group. For the past month I have been in pursuit of this group in an attempt to infiltrate them and find more information about their motives."

Justin lowered his lightsaber, but did not deactivate it as he replied, "I am glad to meet you Vale Keldan, I am Jedi Knight Justin Tera. I have been assigned by the Jedi Council to rescue the abducted children and Jedi apprentices and keep them safe until I can return them to Courscant. Do you know where the children and the Jedi apprentices are?"

Vale placed his helmet back on his head and secured the slips before he nodded, "I know where the children are, but I'm not sure about the Jedi; though I think I know where Tolba is holding them, however," the bounty hunter pulled his pistols free again, "now that you are here I believe that the time for subtlety has past and we can finally free these children."

Justin nodded and turned back to the computer terminal starting where he had left off when Vale spoke again, "What we seek isn't here Jedi; this is a low priority prison only those that cause problems for Jern Tolba and his flunky in Newn-Cape are kept here."

Justin stopped, "Wait who is Tolba's 'flunky'?"

Vale tilted his head slightly, "The Mayor of course, Gerance used to be a rival of Tolba's for power so Tolba made him a puppet in Newn-Cape to take him out of the picture, why?"

Justin pointed to the doorway and turned back to the terminal, working with a quickened pace now, "Then Tolba may know of my presence, we need to hurry before he moves our charges out of the fortress."

Vale moved as Justin directed, but he still shook his head, "Then what are you doing?"

Justin replied over his shoulder, "I saw some weapons crates outside this door and you said only troublesome individuals were kept here, would that include the Mayor who Tolba disposed of?"

The armored man nodded, "Yes, but-" Vale stopped as what Justin had planned downed on him, "You're going to use them to help us?"

Justin nodded, "In a manner of speaking, do you have a ship here big enough to carry all of the children?"

Vale nodded, his confusion clear in his voice, "Yes, but what difference does that make?"

Without breaking his typing Justin replied, "I have a speeder outside the fortress that the prisoners here can use to get back to Newn-Cape and with the pirates' weapons here they can stage a little coup to reclaim their town from Gerance, which will…"

"Further distract Tolba," finished Vale. The bounty hunter nodded in the Jedi's direction as he succeeded in opening the lock, "Very clever Master Jedi."

With their locks released the prisoner slowly made their way out into the main corridor when Justin spoke up, "Where is the Mayor of Newn-Cape?"

An elderly man, gaunt from hard living, stepped forward and made a slight bow, "I am Master Jedi, Mayor Tersely at your service."

Justin nodded, "Very good Mayor Tersely outside here you'll find several crates of weapons that you can use and if you head straight out toward the nearest bunker you'll find an exit outside the fortress, all you'll need to do is move a piece of the bunker, beyond that are the ruins of an old outpost and my speeder is there for you to take you back to Newn-Cape so you can reclaim your town."

Tersely nodded, "Thank you Master Jedi we appreciate the help." Without another word Tersely led the rest of his fellow prisoners out of the complex leaving Justin and Vale to move deeper into the fortress.

Vale took the lead as Justin followed behind with his silenced blaster pistol again in his hand as the pair moved to the only means of traveling out of the basement, an old cargo lift guarded by another pair of guards.

Both men crouched behind a few crates once they had reached the lift as Vale spoke up, "We need to drop both of those guards quickly, if they set off the alarm the lift will lock down until Tolba or one of his lieutenants gives the override code."

Justin nodded and quickly adjusted his blaster's sights for distance shooting, "I'm ready when you are."

Together the two veterans targeted the guards, who remained unaware that they were in any danger, then they fired with the blue and red blots from their weapons sending clashing highlights across the lift.

When both guards fell to the ground the hidden marksmen rose from their cover and rushed forward as Justin shot Vale an exasperated look, "Why didn't you use your stun setting bounty hunter? There was no need to kill them."

Vale shook his head, "There are no guarantees with stun settings, they could fail to completely take the target down and when we are in such risky situations as these we can not afford to take that chance."

Justin clenched his jaw as they reached the lift and he pulled the unconscious form of his target to the side and secured his arms and legs with leather cord the guard had been using to hold his hair, "Regular blaster fire is just as unreliable, if your shot missing or the target doesn't take the hit the way you think, then they still could have triggered the alarm."

Vale sneered from the cargo lift as he waited for Justin to join him, "So you're telling me that when we start facing larger groups of guards, and we will when we reach the prison with the children, you will be hitting them with stun shots while they're shooting to kill?"

Justin considered for a moment then nodded, "If it were possible to do so without risking the lives of those I am charged to protect I would."

The armor-clad bounty hunter through his hands up in frustration, "That would mean that every foe you face would eventually come back to fight you again, while in the meantime you would continue to run out of blaster shots. After that blaster goes empty what will you do?"

Justin flashed Vale a cool smile, "If it came to the point where these pirates were still pursuing us with that many men I would not be using my blaster any longer, but I will not carelessly kill if it can be avoided."

Even through his helmet Vale annoyed snort could be heard, "You Jedi and your ideals, one day not killing a target is going to come back to haunt you and it will be someone like me that will come to try and clean up the mess you leave behind."

Justin paused as he and Vale approached the lift's controls, "In my experience bounty hunter it is commonly people like you who cause problems that require the Jedi's presence to clean up, you cause problems by indiscriminately killing any who oppose you."

Vale snorted in exasperation, a sound that Justin couldn't help but chuckle at as it came through his helmet's filter, "Move aside Jedi, let me get to the controls so we can get moving."

Justin complied and turned to watch the rest of the basement, looking for any signs of new arrivals, fortunately the basement was silent while Vale accessed the lift's controls.

After a few minutes the lift arrived and the two men stepped aboard, the lift was an open air model that had been designed to carry cargo and was still being used as such from the few crates that sat on the old metal grating. With a slight groan the lift began to ascend with a low hum of its machinery lifting them upward.

Vale checked his two pistols and moved a few of the crates to one side to build up a barricade that he could crouch behind. The veteran bounty hunter slid his blaster pistols into their holsters and looked up at Justin, "This may be the time for you to show off your Jedi weapon, the level where the children are being kept always has a small army of guards and I doubt that little blaster has the power to knock them all out."

Justin fought the urge to respond with a snide comment, _This bounty hunter is more aggravating that any other man I've met for many years_, but he did switch his blaster to his left hand and unclipped his lightsaber.

The lift's steady hum began to slow and Vale rose to his feet, "Stay down behind these crates Jedi, I'll move into the front room before you reveal yourself then we'll have the element of surprise when you attack."

Justin nodded, unable to argue with the bounty hunter's logic, and crouched behind the crates as it stopped on the fortresses prison level. Vale stepped off the lift, moving a fast trot and yelled out in a deep bass, "There's an intruder in the basement level! He killed Geoff and Edema, we need to get out of here before that damned Jedi kills us all!"

Low murmurs picked up as Vale fell silent before another voice spoke, bringing the room to silence, "Vale Keldan do you have any proof of this, if there really was a Jedi there I doubt he would have left you alive; no matter how good you are with your pistols you no match for a Jedi."

Justin was about to stand up when he heard the sharp report of a blaster firing followed with Vale's voice as something that sounded like a body fell to the floor, "But it looks like I'm good enough to blast you, you hutt-slime."

Justin rolled his eyes and stood as he activate his lightsaber, his silver blade's _snap-hiss_ filling the room as the other guards stood stared at Vale as he stood over what Justin figured was a ranking officer in the prison complex.

Vale spun and called out in surprise, "It's the Jedi, run for your lives!" Vale suited his action for words and dove through a nearby doorway as the other guards, eight in all pulled their various weapons out, all aiming for Justin.

Justin didn't hesitate and quickly fired two stun bolts into the nearest guard as he rushed a second, the first man dropped with a groan and Justin swung his lightsaber up toward the second guard's blaster rifle.

The silver blade cut the rifle in half, filling the guard's eyes with terror as the humming blade flew past his face. Justin fired a stun bolt into his face and spun away from him to block a pair of blaster bolts from a guard who had managed to aim at the attacking Jedi Knight.

Both ruby darts hit the floor as Justin deflected them before firing his blaster again; the blue bolt dropped the guard to the floor just as it had the first two. The remaining five guards finally overcame their shock and concentrated their fire on the Jedi, hoping to overwhelm him with their firepower.

Justin threw his blaster at one guard as he began to duck and weave through the crimson bolts that filled the air, the blaster pistol hit the man in the nose with a sickening crunch. The man's eyes widened in pain and he grabbed his nose with one hand as he tried to keep his blaster aimed at Justin.

His lightsaber slicing through the air Justin blocked or dodged every blaster bolt fired at him as he approached the guards. In a moments pause between volleys Justin struck out at one man in four quick motions, burning him on his thigh, chest, and both arms before destroying the man's blaster carbine.

As that man fell to the deck with a groan Justin turned to finish the remaining four guards when Vale's armored figure appeared around the doorway he'd dived through. The bounty hunter brought his blaster pistols up and in four quick shots downed the remaining guards with quick shots to the back of their heads.

The armored man spun his pistols on his fingers before he slipped them into their holsters, "Let's go Jedi, we don't have much time before Tolba sends men to figure out what is happening."

Justin sighed wearily and deactivated his lightsaber as he followed the bounty hunter, as he stepped over the lifeless body of the guard whose nose he'd broke with his blaster Justin shook his head and retrieved his blaster.

When Justin stepped through the doorway that Vale had jumped into he was saddened to see another four guards lifeless with blaster wounds to their chest or head. The Jedi Knight was about to speak when he noticed what the room was and suddenly the bounty hunter's reason for securing the room was clear.

The room they were in was the prison control center, monitors lined the walls with images of long prison hallways and grids showing the layout of the prison itself.

Even though he wore a mask Justin could hear a smirk in Vale's voice, "Now you get what I was doing," the bigger man pointed to a monitor showing the prison's northern sector, "this is where the children are. There's another lift nearby that we can use to get to the hangar where my ship is, once we've got them it should be fairly simple to get there without any trouble."

Justin nodded, then stopped, "Wait, where are the Jedi apprentices?"

Vale said chuckled, "Oh them, they're one more level up I think Tolba has a special holding cell for the two of them."

Justin glared at the armored bounty hunter, "Fine then, you free the children and meet me at your ship, I'll go for the apprentices."

Vale shrugged his shoulders, "Suit yourself Jedi, but if things get nasty I'm leaving, rescuing a pair of Jedi brats wasn't part of my job description."

Justin slid his blaster into its holster had nodded, "We'll be there, just have your ship ready to launch." Without another word from the bounty hunter Justin returned to the lift and ordered the lift to ascend another level.

As the lift began to move Justin reached out with his Force senses to locate the two apprentices, he reached out to the extreme of his ability and faintly caught them, they gave off the sensation of being disoriented, _Most likely has them drugged to keep them under control, if he didn't have some restraints on Apprentice Nalden he would do some serious damage if he could_.

Justin tightened his grim on his lightsaber as the lift began to slow, _Now its time to show Tolba that if he wants the Jedi Order's attention he's gotten more than he bargained for_.

_Author's Note: That's the end of Chapter 3, I hope everyone like Vale Keldan's character, with him and Justin it should be interesting to see how they continue to clash with their ideas of how the universe works. I'm sorry it took so long to finish this chapter, but I've really been focusing on my other story Darth Revan Returns so I've been only working on this one when I need a break from that story. So until next time thanks for the reviews._


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